The
violence, injuries, and murder in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend is
unjustified, wrong, and should be punished.

The
Confederate Statues and Memorials should stay and be protected. They are part of our history and
heritage. They teach multiple
lessons. We should not cleanse and whitewash
our own history.

Those who
are offended by Confederate Memorials - maybe that is part of the price you
need pay for multi-culturalism. Allowing
these Statues helped in bringing a divided country together again. Tolerance should work both ways.

Confederate
Statues should even be allowed to be established today.

Get rid of
other people’s Statues and Memorials, and you should not be surprised when one
day others get rid of your Statues and Memorials. How about being respectful and tolerant to
both sides?

On the
other hand, Union Statues (Civil War era), Black Leaders Statues (liberal and
conservative Black Leaders), other Ethnic Statues and Memorials should also be
freely allowed (and are). After all, we
are a diverse, free society.

A few ideas for statues of Black
leaders:

Frederick
Douglass

Booker T.
Washington

Harriet
Tubman

Ida B.
Wells

George Washington
Carver

John
Jasper

Martin
Luther King

S. M.
Lockridge

Clarence
Thomas

Thomas
Sowell

Walter
Williams

Condoleezza
Rice

The recent
controversy at Charlottesville, Virginia was marred by hate and violence on
both sides. The murder by a White Supremacist
should be punished to the full extent of the law.

The media needs to more fairly cover all sides.

Vandalism
of statues and memorials, no matter which side, should be condemned and prosecuted.

Law
Officers should vigorously uphold the law and arrest criminals, whether they be
on the left or on the right; especially in riot situations.

A couple
of quotes I find interesting:

“The hard
left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right.
I saw club-wielding ‘antifa’ beating white nationalist being led out of
the park.”

-Sheryl
Gay Stolberg, New York Times, on the demonstrations in Charlottesville, VA.

“What about the politicians such as the city
council who voted to remove a memorial that had been in place since 1924,
regardless of the possible repercussions? How about the city politicians who
issued the permit for the lawful demonstration to defend the statue? And why
didn't the mayor or the governor see that a powder keg was about to explode and
stop it before it got started?”

“I
denounce bigotry and racism of every form, be it black, white or any other. My
prayer is that our nation will come together. We are stronger together, and our
answers lie in turning to God.”

-Franklin Graham, Samaritan’s Purse, on Charlottesville,
VA.

Christians
need to love, be an example to, and witness to racists and extremists on all
sides.

2 comments:

I wrote this response to Lydia at SBC Today regarding this issue. If you go over to the snark-infested (note spelling) waters at SBC Voices, please feel free to use any or all of it without attribution. I do not post at SBC Voices anymore.

Here in the great state of South Carolina, we have a little experience with controversial Confederate symbols. In 2000, the year the Battle Flag was removed from the State House dome to the Confederate Monument, a law was passed known as the Heritage Act. This law forbids the removal or relocation of any war monument, Native American or African American heritage monument anywhere in the state on public property without a 2/3 vote of both houses of the state legislature. It also prohibits the renaming streets and buildings on public property named for a historic figure without the 2/3 legislature vote. The best thing about this law is that it prevents local entities for removing monuments at the whims of temporary media-stoked public opinion shifts without wide support. This is how the Battle Flag was removed from the State House grounds 2 years ago.

The law is now preventing PC movements to rename Tillman Hall at Clemson University (Tillman was a Governor of SC and a US Senator in the late 19th century) because he was a racist. It is also preventing the renaming Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, because Hampton was a general in the Confederate Army.

Southern Baptist Pastor

Serving the Lord on the upper Gulf Coast of Texas.
Author of The Wit & Wisdom of Pastor Joe Brumbelow, Hannibal Books; and Ancient Wine and the Bible, Free Church Press.
See Article, "About Gulf Coast Pastor" for more information.